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  • Essay / The image of the rebellious wife in Elizabethan England in Shakespeare's play "The Taming of the Shrew"

    Many cultural and literary historians, as well as feminists, have demonstrated, without leaving any margin of doubt, that in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, rebellious and rebellious women were always a concern for men in Elizabethan society. Evidence of unease, anxiety and discomfort towards unruly women or called "the breeches contest" by Linda Woodbridge, a scholar of Renaissance English literature, can be found in various discursive locations and occasions such as popular plays, legal treatises, ballads. , accounts and reports of domestic violence, books of conduct from the 16th and 17th centuries, and lectures on appropriate impersonal behavior within and outside the family. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay The desire to bring rebellious women into line, sometimes even violently, is often documented and recorded in accounts from legal and legal circles. extrajudicial. correlation of nags, scolds and shrews as well as homeless or vagrant women, bearers of illegitimate children, whores, scolds and witches. The public, community practice of disciplining rebellious women, both staged and imagined, differs from the private, domestic discipline that was discussed in the prospective literature. The same culture that supported or "felt good" about burning witches, scolding them, and whipping whores had, during the Elizabethan period, become increasingly sensitive and very concerned that husbands beat their wives. The play “The Taming of the Shrew” by Shakespeare, said to have been written between 1590 and 1592, is essentially about the court of Katherina, the stubborn and strong-willed shrew, and her courtier Petruchio. Initially, Katherina is unwilling to marry Petruchio, however, due to various psychological and mental torments, such as not letting her eat or drink until she becomes a willing, obedient and desirable wife, the thus successfully taming. The play "The Taming of the Shrew" is inspired by many ballads, folk songs and folk tales about cunning wives being tamed by their husbands to be obedient, which were very popular in England at that time. Shakespeare created a disturbing and problematic comedy that highlights the gender issues that existed in Elizabethan society. The practice of "taming" disobedient wives was common in England during the Elizabethan era, and it was combined with the popular image of a wise wife in a patriarchal literary tradition. Although there is very little evidence with which to judge whether men in Elizabethan society actually became less violent domestically, there is no doubt that the prospective literature moved away from condoning the specific violence of domestic violence. The force of public discourse and discussion about domestic violence is typical of a culture at work in reconstructing the authorized and unauthorized methods for men in the family, primarily husbands, to maintain control of politics in a home without questioning the objective. This new frontier was essentially built on ideas of civil behavior and social and class division. Shakespeare's play "The Taming of the Shrew" functions as a comic road map aimed at reorganizing and bringing together these emerging modes and means of "supremacy"skillful” and legitimized. " and "civilized domination" for "gentlemen", that is, subordinating a woman, essentially wives, without using the brute force of an ordinary man. Despite the fact that the play places Petruchio on the non-violent and gentle side of the new construct of permitted methods of subordinating a woman, a closer examination of the play shows that Petruchio's civilized domination was no less a representation of the domestic violence. Dismissing Petruchio's tactics and strategies as a mutual game played between two equal players or as a farce, it is important to take Petruchio's "civilized" strategies very seriously. Digging into cultural assumptions and beliefs about domestic violence, past and present, makes the comedy of The Taming of the Shrew less funny and more problematic. It can be argued that the play indicates a shift towards an improved and modern method of carrying out domestic violence. subordination of disobedient or “clever” wives by legitimizing domination and abuse provided it is not physical. I argue that the assumptions made by many critics of this play who have praised Shakespeare's alterations to the sources of The Taming of the Shrews without considering the politics of domination, obedience, and discipline in the play. Applaud Petruchio's behavior for his non-violence and non-violence. physical as being "better" despite the fact that it was no less abusive, corresponds to the distinction of "reconstruction" that can be seen in many sermons and in early modern documents and books. Quite simply because Petruchio does not use physical force to mistreat Katherine, nor hit her, nor flog her, nor scourge her, nor wrap his horse's salty skin around her, as such practices were very common at that time. time to make unruly wives obedient and docile. including forcing a disobedient wife or "shrew" to wear a "snarling bridle" and the metal attached to the bridle, when inserted into the mouth, would depress the woman's tongue and make it impossible for the woman to speak, this is not necessarily the case. signifies Petruchio's treatment of Katherine in the play. Taming the shrew was better or less abusive than if he had done so. In the play, the characterization of Katherine as the shrew who must be tamed reflects the image of the rebellious wife in Elizabethan England. which also imposed on him necessary forms of subordination and social taming, manifesting in practices that caused him embarrassment and humiliation in front of everyone. Katherine's characteristics in the play, particularly her direct and outspoken nature and her rejection of male domination, are fundamentally farcical depictions of the unruly and rebellious woman, which the liberal audience of this play would have recognized during the performance of the play . Lynda E. Boose, author of Shakespeare's The Movies, describes a "scold" in her essay "Scalding Brides and Bridling Scolds: Taming the Woman's Unruly Member" as "any woman who has verbally resisted or flouted authority publicly and sufficiently of stubbornness to challenge the underlying dictum of male dominance.” References to Katherine's surly nature can be found throughout the play; Before appearing before Petruchio, Hortensio describes her as "renowned in Padua for her reprimanding tongue" (Act 1 Scene 2), giving the impression to Petruchio and the play's audience that her uncensored opinions and sharp language pose a problem. issue. He then goes on to give her the title "Katherine the Curse", identifyingKatherine as an obstacle to his marriage to Bianca and also indicating his rebellious nature, which helps connect the dots to early modern England, when crafty and rebellious women were associated with witches. Petruchio alludes to Katherine's nonconforming and proud-minded personality, describing Kate's defiance and stubbornness as those of undisciplined women, while her father Baptista asks Petruchio to prepare to receive "unfortunate words" when he says in the Act 2.1 scene "But be armed with a few unhappy words", which again depicts Katherine's troublesome nature due to her being a reprimand and her mouth being the source of her reprimand . Due to the fact that she is a scold and has a shrewd character, she forces Petruchio to use various methods intended to make her an obedient and docile wife. However, even though in Act 2, Scene 1, Katherine strikes Petruchio, throughout the play Petruchio does not once use physical violence against her, although he threatens in Act 2, Scene 1 and said: "I swear I will handcuff you if you strike again". Since views began to change in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Petruchio's non-violent and non-aggressive reaction as well as the Katherine's response "If you hit me, you're not a gentleman" to his threat aligns with the changing beliefs and views of that era in early modern England. was not considered a crime, and it was practiced because a husband basically had "the right" to use violence to exercise his patriarchal power and the violence was considered in the terms historian Philippa Maddern has characterized. "moral hierarchy of violence", in which the head of the family had the moral and ethical authority to resort to the school of violence or to discipline those below him in the hierarchy, even if it was thought that the husband's power could not be excessive. Additionally, some texts from the Elizabethan period suggest the necessary expansion of husbands' power and authority over the family, and the reforms implemented by religious groups such as Protestants and Puritan preachers during the period. Elizabethan were based on the belief that it is not ideal for a husband to use violence to subordinate his wife. And that is why other forms of subordination and "discipline" of a disobedient wife without resorting to physical violence were discovered and very popularized at that time, the aim of which was not to end the atrocities against women or improve their situation, but rather used to strengthen the husband's ability to subordinate his wife. This shows that Queen Elizabeth's reign was a mere exception to the usual life. Sources show that wives were not to be treated as slaves and that their aim was to help their husbands by serving them according to their instructions and that husbands were seen as being in charge and holding all the power and authority. Thus, changes in the way domestic violence was carried out emphasized advances and shifts in male power and control, rather than any improvements in the rights and conditions in which women lived. Therefore, in the play The Taming of the Shrew, the ways and methods that Petruchio uses to tame Katherine, indicates the new civilized way of "disciplining" a disobedient or rebellious wife and exercising control over her. In the play, at their wedding, Petruchio arrives late, and that too very clumsily dressed in a very clumsy outfit, this subtle act of Petruchio.